Ed FitzGerald (left) is making a running mate change after Eric Kearney resigned as his lieutenant governor candidate. / The Enquirer/Tony Jones

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Eric Kearney’s candidacy

Nov. 20 - The Enquirer first reports FitzGerald has chosen Kearney as his running mate. Nov. 21 - FitzGerald and Kearney start campaigning together, appearing first in Cincinnati. Nov. 22 - Cleveland’s Plain Dealer reports the Kearneys still owe about $84,000 in personal income taxes from a 2010 lien filed by the IRS and originally reported by The Enquirer. The couple has also had foreclosures initiated against them and then canceled. Nov. 26 - The Enquirer reports Kearney’s business has liens for $683,000 in unpaid federal taxes, and the Columbus Dispatch reports his business has state tax liens for about $100,000. The FitzGerald campaign cannot say how much Kearney still owes on those liens. Nov. 27 - The Enquirer reports American Express sued Kearney in 2012 over $14,000 in unpaid credit card bills. Kearney settled the case with a promise to make $500-a-month payments. Dec. 4 - Kearney holds a 95-minute conference call with reporters, releasing financial documents that show he still owes up to $826,000 on the personal and business tax debts. The unpaid taxes all come from the family’s struggling business, Kearney says, and the credit card debt is down to $2,100. After the conference call, a Washington Post blog labeled the Kearney rollout the worst of the year. Later that day, The Enquirer reports Kearney’s company had a lien and a lawsuit over a total of $250,000 in unpaid loans. The amount has since been paid back, the FitzGerald campaign says. Dec. 6 - The Dispatch reports the Kearneys’ business neglected to pay workers’ compensation payments for nearly five years, but the couple was still able to contribute more than $7,000 to political campaigns during that time period. Dec. 7 - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown tells The Dispatch the FitzGerald campaign could have credibility problems on tax issues because of Kearney’s history. Dec. 9 - The Enquirer editorial board calls for Kearney to resign his candidacy. Dec. 10 - In the morning, The Enquirer reports the FitzGerald campaign is preparing a running mate change. That afternoon, Kearney resigns.

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North Avondale’s Eric Kearney resigned Tuesday as Democrat Ed FitzGerald’s running mate in the 2014 gubernatorial race, after news reports by The Enquirer and other Ohio newspapers revealed that he, his wife and his business owe up to $826,000 in unpaid taxes.

“It’s undeniable that this has come to be a distraction from a discussion of the vital issues facing Ohio and the choice voters must make in this election,” Kearney said Tuesday in a statement. “I have discussed this with Ed FitzGerald, and while I will always be grateful for him selecting me to be his running mate, we agree that the best course of action is for me to step aside from the campaign.”

The campaign has yet to choose a new candidate for lieutenant governor but plans to do so in January, if not sooner, FitzGerald said.

In the running mate change, the FitzGerald campaign effectively admitted Kearney’s tax problems were hindering its chances to point out what it sees as weaknesses in Gov. John Kasich’s tenure – a key factor in unseating any incumbent.

“That message about how tough it is to raise a family in Ohio really was being drowned out and that was just a burden that the campaign was not going to be able to bear any more,” FitzGerald said.

Talking about Ohio’s stagnating economy, which has fallen behind the national recovery, needs to be FitzGerald’s main strategy now, said Vladimir Kogan, a political scientist at Ohio State University. The campaign may have to ditch its strategy of calling into question Kasich’s trustworthiness, often a factor in campaign discussions of secrecy or potential conflicts of interest at JobsOhio, the state’s privatized economic development group.

“When the governor is debating his opponent and the issue of conflict of interest comes up, the governor is going to say, ‘Would you rather trust me, or rather trust this guy, who doesn’t put in the time to check the background of his lieutenant governor?’ ” Kogan said.

Still, Kasich’s path to re-election may have gotten a bit more difficult this month. Union Township tea partier Ted Stevenot, president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition, has filed paperwork with the Ohio secretary of state to designate a treasurer for his campaign committee.

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Stevenot has been a vocal opponent of Kasich moves such as expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. His candidacy in the primary could further divide conservatives, drain money from the Kasich campaign and potentially challenge the governor’s nomination by his party.

But Stevenot has not officially launched a campaign and declined to comment Tuesday on his possible candidacy.

For now, Kearney’s resignation leaves Southwest Ohio without a stake in the governor’s race. And if FitzGerald wants to add racial and geographic diversity to his ticket once again, he has no clear frontrunners from this part of the state.

Ohio House Minority Leader Tracy Heard, D-Columbus, is viewed as a frontrunner to join FitzGerald on the ticket. She is a prominent African-American legislator, just as Kearney is, and she is from outside FitzGerald’s Cuyahoga County stomping grounds. When statehouse reporters asked her about the FitzGerald ticket on Tuesday, she sidestepped the question and declined to comment.

Tim Burke, chair of the Hamilton County Democratic Party, said he had suggested a few other options to the FitzGerald campaign: former Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, Cincinnati State President Dr. O’Dell Owens and state Rep. Alicia Reece, D-Bond Hill, who is president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. All would give FitzGerald another Democratic option from a county that has been historically Republican, but recently voted for President Barack Obama and Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.

Owens would have to be persuaded to step away from his job at the college, Burke admitted. Mallory’s statehouse experience and mayor’s position makes him qualified, but he Mallory once told an Enquirer reporter he would not be interested in being No. 2 on a gubernatorial ticket. Reece is ambitious and an excellent campaigner, but is less experienced in state politics than Kearney.

“I think they’re going to take a little time, not jump too quickly, and look around the state for options,” Burke said. “We are still on the (statewide) ticket because we’ve got both (treasurer candidate) Connie Pillich and (attorney general candidate) David Pepper, which is still an indication that Hamilton County is viewed very differently by the Democratic party than it was a decade ago.

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“That’s not saying that we own every race, but it is saying we sure are competitive.”

FitzGerald, the Cuyahoga County executive, had announced state Sen. Kearney as his running mate just under three weeks ago. The pick gave the Democratic ticket geographic and racial diversity and added Kearney’s clout as a prominent lawmaker and proven fundraiser.

But two days after the announcement, reports about Kearney’s past and present unpaid bills began to roll out in major newspapers across Ohio. The FitzGerald campaign said it knew about the debts, but was unable to say exactly how much Kearney owed. The state senator finally released financial documents on Wednesday, 12 days after the reports began. By then, Democratic operatives had already started whispering that he needed to resign.

Kearney had blamed his debts on financial troubles with the family business. He and his wife, Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, co-own Avondale’s Sesh Communications, which publishes African-American newspapers such as the Cincinnati Herald. The Kearneys say they were committed to keeping the paper running despite financial struggles amid the recession and the rise of Internet news. ■